Strategy

The following is an excerpt from Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World By Doug Stephens “Software eats retail.” This was technology investor Marc Andreessen’s moribund epitaph for the retail industry in a January 2013 interview. Andreessen, the co-founder of the web browser Netscape Navigator, is also one of Silicon Valley’s most …

By Doug Stephens On October 25 of this year — on an otherwise quiet day in retail news — Nike chief executive Mark Parker fired a reverberating shot across the bow of the entire retail industry. He announced that out of Nike’s global universe of more than 30,000 retail partners the brand would, going forward, …

By Doug Stephens In 2011, in what has now become retail folklore, Ron Johnson, one of the brains behind the Apple Store, was hired to resuscitate the American department store chain JCPenney. At the time, I was asked to write an article for Advertising Age on whether Johnson would succeed or fail at this herculean …

By Doug Stephens Like individuals, retail companies tend to approach each new year by making resolutions to improve their performance. Among other things, these might include incremental improvements in supply chain efficiency, omnichannel capabilities, or perhaps enhancements to customer experience – essentially the corporate equivalent of joining a gym and trying to lose 5 …

By Doug Stephens In a move that has taken analysts and investors completely by surprise, Sears Holdings announced that it will be embarking on bold “new” retail strategy, one that represents a complete change of course for the brand. In a press release issued today, a spokesperson for the company said, “After …